MTSS Key Terms
- Instructional Intervention: A formalized and flexible program (MTSS) developed to help students at risk of meeting end of year learning targets and improve their understanding of essential skills and address an academic need.
- Interventionist: An interventionist is responsible for delivering supplemental instruction to students who are having trouble in the classroom. The interventionist provides intentional support to students who demonstrate educational, behavioral and/or social challenges. An interventionist is a general education teacher, special education teacher, reading specialist, and/or IIS teacher.
- Composite Score: A score used to summarize broad academic skills based on a required battery of measures. Students with a composite score in the 25th percentile or below will be placed in an intervention group.
- Cut Scores: a set of scores within a composite area that divides students into level of risk or tiers.
- Tier 1 = 80% or greater probability of meeting the target by the end of the year
- Tier 2 = 50-79% probability of meeting the target by the end of the year
- Tier 3 = less than 50% chance of meeting the target by the end of a year
- Risk Levels: May be categorized as Low, Moderate, or High. Associated with composite scores and risk of not meeting a preset target. Low risk is associated with Tier 1, Moderate risk with Tier 2, and High risk with Tier 3. Statistical regressions were made with fall and winter norm data for future outcomes in the spring.
- Rate of Improvement (ROI): Change over time – Please note, typical ROI does not account for small group intervention. Therefore, when small group intervention is occurring, target ROI should be aggressive in order to close the achievement gap. We want to accelerate students that lag behind.
- Typical ROI: Expected rate of progress of students from benchmark to benchmark
- Target ROI: ROI from the starting point of the student’s benchmark to the next benchmark point
- Attained ROI: ROI (slope) actually attained by the student in progress monitoring
- Student Growth Percentile: Norms of growth rates based on initial level of performance (well below average, below average, average, etc.). A lower achieving student who has a SGP above 50 is “closing the gap” or lessening the discrepancy between their performance and typical peers. Those whose SGP is less than 50 is becoming more discrepant across time.
- Goal Efficiency: A color-coded square (Grey, Pink, Green, or Yellow) labeled based on the rate of improvement selected. This is found on the goal setup screen in aimswebPlus. May be Extremely Ambitious (>97 SGP), Ambitious (86-96 SGP), Closes the Gap (51-85 SGP), or Insufficient (0-50 SGP). Student Growth Percentiles (SGP) are based on the student’s initial score compared to the national norm.
- Gap Analysis: Discrepancy between expected and attained performance
- How far from the expected benchmark is the student at the point of referral?
- How slow is the rate of progress of the student as compared to their peers at the point of referral?
- Evidence-Based Intervention: Treatments that have been proven effective through outcome research. These interventions are very likely to be effective in improving outcomes if implemented with integrity.
- Survey Level Assessment (SLA): The process by which an examiner determines a student’s present level of performance on a specific measure by testing backwards by grade level until the score falls within the average range. SLA is also used to determine the appropriate level to monitor student progress. This is done by successively testing backwards by grade level until the optimal level (11-25th percentile) for monitoring is found. aimswebPlus provides an option for completing SLA digitally. Data collected through SLA in the application can be used as baseline scores when setting up progress monitoring schedules.